


Love Song for a Rat King

by JoAsakura



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, References to The Nutcracker, merry crimbus ya animals, rat king reaper
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:57:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21960031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoAsakura/pseuds/JoAsakura
Summary: The Rat King meets a Toy Soldier and nothing else matters.
Relationships: Reaper | Gabriel Reyes/Soldier: 76 | Jack Morrison
Comments: 8
Kudos: 115





	Love Song for a Rat King

Gabriel doesn’t care about the why behind the tree and the lights and various and sundry activities that follow the Long Dark Night. He appreciates the aesthetic, distantly, even if the candles make it harder for his people to do their errands, the light spilling over from the Human World into the Otherkingdom swallowing up the shadows they need.

What Gabriel cares about though, is this night with the tree and the lights and the various and sundry activities, is the one night when the door between the Human World and the Otherkingdom cracks open just enough for a rat to slip through.

When he was just a child, he rode the shadows with his mother to the Human World to steal trinkets and treats . This was no easy task, for in the Human World, the Rat King was very tiny and the cats were very large.

On this night, in the Human World, other magics run wild too, and in the shadows, all manner of toys wake and dance and revel in one short night of life before the magic fades and steals the breath from their newborn lungs and the fire from their eyes, leaving them trapped in unmoving forms until the next year. The lucky ones find their way through the crack in the door, to the Otherkingdom, where life does not fade with the dawn. (There are complex and unsavoury facets to the Toylands, Gabriel muses as he steadies his nightmare, waiting for the door to open. He cares not for them overall, but the idea of being trapped in that never-ending moment right before the sun rises horrifies him, and the politics of the Sugar Plum Fairy are begnign in comparison)

This night changed for him forever last year, he sighs, heart pounding as he resettles his bony-white combat mask. There were always skirmishes between the rats and the toys, as on earth as it is in Otherkingdom, but there was one, a new tin soldier unlike the others. His fine hussar’s uniform had been chipped and torn, his pretty face seamed with an unkind scar. A hand-me-down toy, unloved and treated roughly, but his eyes were kinder than any Gabriel had ever seen.

During that first battle, oh, how Gabriel had watched him. No toy can truly kill a rat, and no rat can truly kill a toy, but with cutlass and musket he fought like ten newer toys. His hair had once been gold, but the paint had worn, leaving tin behind, glinting silver in the candlelight. So enchanted had Gabriel been by him, that he’d not seen the ballerinas and their savage dance approach.

He was sure it was the end of him as their feet thundered closer, his body to be broken and reawaken in Otherkingdom, unable to return for seven years. But the soldier grabbed him and pulled him clear as their wild dance tore through the rats.

Those kind blue eyes crinkled. “I saw you, taking care not to hurt my comrades overmuch, and yet they don’t respond in kind. I was curious as to why.”

“We are all true to our natures,” Gabriel had replied. “My nature is to come through and fight toys and cats and bring back food and prizes to my people. Their nature is to stop us.” Carefully, he’d taken off his mask then, and saw himself reflected in the Soldier’s eyes. He had never thought himself more handsome than in that moment.

“My nature, then, is to be fair,” the Soldier replied with a smile on his scarred face. “The humans have more than they need. Take what you can, I won’t stop you.”

“I’m Gabriel,” the Rat King said, straightening his cloak.

“A child once named me Jack, many hands ago. This one doesn’t call me anything.” The Soldier said with a sad little smile. “He’s careless and cruel.”

“Then, Jack, I am going to steal that fruitcake up there and bring it, and you, back to Otherkingdom with me,” Gabriel announced, grabbing his hand.

“But what about when the morning comes?”

“When the morning comes you will be as handsome and as brave as you are now, I’ve seen it before,” Gabriel dragged him towards the table. “And I will never be careless or cruel.”

“We’ve only just met!”

“A rat’s life is short! Best to fill it with love and glory while you can!” Gabriel laughed as they clambered up to the cake. Down below, the rats were retreating with their bounty.

Breathing heavily, they leaned against the cake, and Jack the Soldier leaned over, a pink flush on his cheeks. “Tell me about this Otherkingdom,” he whispered close, gilded lashes fluttering down over bright blue eyes. Gabriel kissed him instead.

Many things had happened that night, and instead of stealing the jewel-toned cake, the Rat King had told the Soldier about Otherkingdom in the language of skin touching skin. Words shaped by kisses and deft touches and shared in the brush of lips on wanting flesh.

But dawn came too soon. The fruitcake forgotten, Gabriel desperately hurried them both to the door. It was closing, it was closing too fast and he had never cut it this close before in all his raids.

Jack’s hand was tight in his clawed gauntlets and they ran towards the inching sliver of shadow closing before them. The clock struck a booming gong far above their heads. “Gabriel! You have to go!” Jack yelled, letting him go.

Gabriel wheeled around to see metal creeping up where leather and wool and flesh should be. “NO!” He could feel the magic starting to slip.

“RUN!” Jack shoved him. “Before you get trapped here! GO!” Flaking paint rippled across his face.

“I’ll be back for you as soon as it opens again!” Gabriel bolted for the door, sliding through it as it ground close. He looked back just as those kind blue eyes went dim. “JACK!”

A year he waited, planning. His advisors, the Witch, the Huntress, mad Doctor Junkenstein and his creation, all of them working towards that end. He ignored the machinations of the Toylands and their Faerie despot, leaving his lieutenants to hold their borders. The Rat King was consumed by the memory of those eyes and that smile.

A rat’s life was short, but a promise was eternal.

And now, as the door opened, a golden sliver of light piercing the silvery twilight of Otherkingdom, the Rat King spurred his nightmare. There would be no raid of sweets or trinkets this night.

The Rat King was coming to take his bride.


End file.
